Migrant gang member throws scalding water on pregnant woman as officials downplay migrant crime
A woman in Aurora, Colorado said last week that a member of the Tren de Aragua gang threw hot water on her while she was pregnant.
Who are Tren de Aragua?
Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan crime ring whose members are among approximately one million Venezuelans who have entered the United States illegally under the Biden-Harris administration. The gang maintains a presence across the United States running sex and drug trafficking rings, money laundering operations, and other criminal enterprises.
The gang gained media attention earlier this year after one of its members allegedly murdered Laken Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia. José Antonio Ibarra, who illegally entered the United States in 2022, has been charged with Riley’s murder and attempting to rape her.
Tren de Aragua has gained footholds in several major US cities including New York, El Paso, San Antonio, Dallas, and Miami. In August, it was revealed that Tren de Aragua gang members had placed parts of the Denver suburb of Aurora under its brutal control. Armed squads have taken over entire apartment buildings by intimidating residents and subjecting victims to beatings and threats.
‘They kicked the door in’
In one of those apartment buildings, called The Whispering Pines, a new Guatemalan mother reports living in terror under Tren de Aragua’s rule. In a recent incident, a gang member threw hot water at her and her husband while she was pregnant because they refused to abandon their apartment.
“They kicked the door in. They tried to find a way . . . they came and threw hot water on us,” she told the building’s managers, according to the Daily Mail. The incident caused her to go into early labor.
Aurora City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky told Fox News that once the gang chases residents out of their homes, it sells the living spaces to Venezuelan families.
“We currently have entire complexes under gang control — complexes where staff have been beaten up, they’ve been threatened, their families have been threatened [and] complexes where there are no staff left on the property. These complexes are being run by this Tren de Aragua gang,” Jurinsky said.
“They start brokering apartments themselves when someone leaves out of fear or whatever. They go in and take pictures of the apartment themselves,” she continued. “Then, I’ve been told, within hours, a Venezuelan family moves in.”
Officials downplay gang’s presence despite evidence
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, however, has downplayed the gang’s presence in the city.
“There is a tendency to exaggerate and to say this incident that's isolated to three buildings under the same ownership with the same people, concentration of Venezuelan migrants, is the city of Aurora . . . that the entire city is unsafe,” Coffman said in an August interview.
Similarly, Aurora Police Department Acting Deputy Police Chief Chris Juul also dismissed concerns about Tren de Aragua. “I don't think Venezuelan gangs are a big safety concern in the city of Aurora,” he said.
But documents uncovered in September revealed that while officials were downplaying the gang’s presence, they knew it had already taken over three apartment complexes.
‘I don’t want to live here anymore’
Denver residents have taken to social media to describe events on the ground, which appear to corroborate Jurinsky’s statements.
“Everywhere you look, everywhere you turn in this stupid city of Denver, it’s all illegal immigrants at this point,” complained one resident, who said Denver’s police presence is dwindling due to threats from gangs. “It’s dangerous for them to be out right now,” she explained. “Especially with these illegal immigrant gangs . . . they’ve put hits out on police officers in the city and county of Denver. Why nobody talks about that, I don’t know. But that’s real. It’s happening. It’s legitimately happening.”
“I don’t want to live here anymore,” she added.
